


Harpo the Cat

by Ttori315



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Fluff, Tony Gets a Cat, cause he loves animals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 12:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16873029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ttori315/pseuds/Ttori315
Summary: Tony adopts a cat





	Harpo the Cat

Tony had always loved animals, wanting one but never having enough time for one. Howard hadn’t allowed them when he was a kid and then he was too busy going to parties and other things to take care of an animal. Then there was the excuse of too much danger. He didn’t want to have to worry about keeping an animal, easily lost because it was so small, safe. People just liked to blow his houses up too much. He had always worried about Pepper or someone else getting hurt, adding an animal into the mix made it even harder. When the team had moved into the tower, he’d entertained the idea of getting something. Maybe a dog, so it could run with Steve and Natasha, but then the tower had gotten attacked again and he’d decided it would be best to put that idea aside.

Then Tony had crashed into a small animal shelter in the middle of the last battle. Luckily he hadn’t crashed into any animals. He had left a huge hole in the roof though, which meant they’d had to close until repairs could be made, moving all the animals to another shelter temporarily. Tony had made sure that it was one of the places the Stark Relief foundation had been sent as soon as the battle was over and it was safe to start clean up. It had taken them a week, longer than he would have liked, but there was no controlling that. The damage had been extensive and only so many people could work on it for only so long.

Once the shelter was set to reopen, the animals back and ready to be adopted, Tony and Pepper swung by. He’d felt bad, destroying the tiny building and wanted to give them some money. He’d asked around and had been told that it had been struggling and was close to being shut down. Apparently adoption rates were low but drop off rates were high. The workers from the foundation had told him that there were other problems they had fixed while they were repairing the roof. The shelter was hurting for money and Tony Stark had more than enough to give away.

Walking in, Pepper and Tony were met by a wall of noise. Barking, meowing, even hissing and cawing. The shelter had all kind of animals in varying cage size. A young girl stood behind the desk, eyes wide in recognition. She quickly moved around it to greet them.

“Mr. Stark! Ms. Potts! Oh my gosh! Mr. Stark, thank you for repairing the roof. We thought we were going to have to close permanently after!” She said, stopping infront of them. She held out a hand. “My name is Danielle. You can call me Dany.”

Pepper shook her hand and then Tony. “You can call me Pepper, and that’s Tony. We’ve heard about the financial issues the shelter has been having. We wanted to help.”

“It was my fault the roof had to be repaired and when I saw how many animals were here, well I have more money than I need so here.” Tony held the check out for Dany to take. She looked close to tears when she read it.

“This is… Oh my gosh this is like ten times our budget for the year! Mr. Stark… We’ll be able to help so many animals with this!” She looked so happy.

Tony shrugged and he looked at Pepper, who was smiling softly. “Well I wanted to help out. I love animals.”

“Would.. do you want a tour? I feel like I should do something to thank you. Although, I’m not sure I can thank you enough. We really needed this.” Dany told him and she looked around. “Maybe we can find you a friend? If you like animals maybe you’ll fall inlove with someone here. We would waive all fees obviously.”

Pepper laughed. “Tony you should think about it! I’d love to get a pet. It would be safe in the tour. We have all the heroes plus the younger ones now.”

Tony thought about it for a moment. “No promises, but we can look.”

***

Looking at shelter animals was always a bad idea, Tony decided. After a lap around the cages he wanted to adopt every single one. When he voiced that opinion, Pepper gently reminded him that while they had the room, they didn’t have enough people to take care of them. Logically that made sense, but seeing the sad looks that every animal gave him made it hard to resist.

One that caught his eye was a small black cat. When Tony walked over to his cage, the cat rubbed against the bars once before sitting and staring at him. Slowly, the cat blinked.

“That’s Harpo.” Dany offered, walking with Pepper over to him. “He’s been here about a year. No one wants to adopt black cats.”

“Why not?” Tony asked, putting a finger between the bars. Harpo sniffed it before brushing a cheek against it. He was silky soft.

Dany rolled her eyes. “People think they’re bad luck. You know, all those myths about black cats and witches and stuff.”

“People really believe that?” Pepper asked, brow furrowed. Dany nodded.

“Seems like a sweet guy to me.” Tony responded, petting the top of Harpo’s head.

“He’s the sweetest. He likes being held and he’ll follow you around. He just wants to be loved.” Dany sighed. “No one wants to give him a chance.”

Pepper put a hand on Tony’s shoulder. When he looked back at her, she was grinning. He laughed. “Fine. Can we adopt him? I think he’ll fit in great with our band of misfits.”

***

Harpo fit in immediately. He was good with everyone. Allowing them to pet and hold him. He followed various people around and explored the tower. Small doors were put in the stair access doors to allow him to go where he pleased. These were activated by the chip in his red collar, bought on his way home. Tony programmed it himself and Jarvis was always monitoring him.

The cat was often found near Tony. He was obviously the favorite. Harpo would only sit on Tony’s shoulder, no one else’s.

“Maybe he’s afraid of heights.” Clint joked one day. Tony rolled his eyes.

“He probably knows that I’m the most stable one.” He shot back.

“Keep telling yourself that Tones.” Rhodey piped up.

***

Harpo also enjoyed water. Tony had to make sure the door was closed when he went to shower. Whenever he didn’t, he ended up with a cat hanging out in the spray with him. As an experiment, he had filled the bathtub with water. Harpo jumped right in and started to swim.

“I thought cats didn’t like water.” Tony said to Pepper as they watched him swimming around.

Pepper shrugged. “Some cats do I guess. This one certainly does. Maybe we should get him his own pool. Maybe a smaller one than the one we have. I’m not sure the chlorine would be good for him. We’ll do some research.”

Tony ended up making him a small pool with filtered water. He was often found swimming in it. Tony even put in little fish for him to catch.

***

Tony’s favorite thing about Harpo is when he hung out in the workshop. He would sit on Tony’s shoulder as he worked. Tony was always careful, making sure to move slowly so he didn’t jostle the little bundle of fur. He loved the constant noise of Harpo’s purr as he worked. It was soothing.

If he was dealing with something Harpo didn’t like, the cat would move to the top of his head. He was lucky that he was so small. He was a little big for it, but Tony would move him if he felt like Harpo might fall off.

Harpo had his own set of goggles that he wore when he was in the workshop and Tony was welding. He didn’t want the sparks to go into his eyes and he was worried that he would learn the hard way to keep his distance. He always made sure to set up a little barrier for Harpo to sit on and Jarvis would kill the torch if Harpo got too close. He always put the cat’s little goggles on him. He found it hilarious that the cat wouldn’t knock them off until Tony was finished with the project.

***

The first time he brought Harpo to Peter’s apartment, the cat had climbed right in the tub. Tony had brought him because Peter had mentioned how much he missed the cat in the bodega that had gotten blasted. It hadn’t opened yet, so Peter didn’t get to see the cat. He always liked seeing Harpo, so Tony decided to bring him over.

“Um… Mr. Stark.” Peter said, sitting next to Tony on the couch.

“What’s up Pete?” Tony responded, fiddling with the TV remote.

“Harpo is in the bathtub. It’s fine and everything but… He’s just sitting there. He kept meowing at me and wouldn’t move.”

“Oh, that’s cause he wants you to put water in it. He likes to swim.” Tony looked at him with a smile.

Peter laughed. “You’re cat is so weird.”

Tony nodded. “We’re all a little weird Petey.”

“I hope you know, I’d die for Harpo.” The teen said it in a serious tone. Tony shook his head.

“Well then it’s a good thing that he doesn’t request human sacrifice. Plus, you promised me you weren’t gonna die again.” He responded.

“Well then I guess we’ll just have to spoil him to get his love.” Peter laughed.

There was a meow behind them and Harpo leapt onto the back of the couch.

“I think he deems that appropriate.”


End file.
